The proposal is part of the state's 12-page response to a federal judge's order for a plan to spare "heat sensitive" inmates from sweltering conditions inside a Southeast Texas prison. The response was filed Thursday in federal court in Houston.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison's preliminary injunction last month didn't require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to install air conditioning in areas where heat-sensitive inmates are housed at the Pack Unit, about 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) northwest of Houston. He said, however, that those inmates needed to reside where temperatures are no higher than 88 degrees (31.11 Celsius).